Success story: Costa crooks
After escaping custody during an ambush in June 2003, Clifford Hobbs spent four years on the run – he was eventually tracked down and arrested in Spain.
Hobbs escaped when two armed men ambushed a prison van taking him to Inner London Crown Court. The driver was shot in the leg and a guard was pistol-whipped across the face. Hobbs then fled in a getaway car.
Hobbs was featured in the first batch of the 10 Costa Crooks under the Operation Captura campaign in October 2006. Also amongst the ten featured on Crimestoppers' Most Wanted web page, was one of Hobbs' accomplices, Noel Cunningham, who is still at large. The pair were charged with conspiracy to steal £1.25 million from a Securicor van in Brixton in March 2003.
Hobbs was arrested in August 2007, on charges of robbery, firearms offences and escaping from custody.
Latest Crimestoppers statistics*
The following statistics are Crimestoppers official statistics so far this year (since April 2008):
1,128 criminals have been arrested and charged
13,548 calls to Crimestoppers with useful information
£1,899,111 worth of illegal drugs have been seized
£910,727 worth of stolen goods have been recovered
Did you know...?
As a result of information Crimestoppers receives:
17 criminals are arrested and charged every day
Somebody is charged with murder every 5 days
Last year, 81 people were arrested and chatged for firearms offences
400 people were arrested and charged for drink driving
Case study: Julie Facey, Crimestoppers Community Champion
Julie is a mother-of-two living in Peckham, south London. She started trying to make her community a better place due to her teenage son's experiences on the streets.
She's fighting for a positive future for young people, the majority of whom are not involved in gangs and violence.
Julie is particularly worried that some young people are wary about travelling to different boroughs in London. When she's with her son, she worries that she's walking him into danger.
She thinks that Crimestoppers is the ideal outlet for young people who have information about crime, but who fear reprisal.